Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The bodybuilding model and fitness star who was killed by a train while filming a sports drink commercial in Los Angeles last Saturday was allegedly trying to outrun the 200-ton engine when he was struck.

Greg Plitt, among the more recognizable faces and physiques in the fitness industry, was shooting the dangerous stunt for his website with two crew members when the Metrolink commuter train hit him Saturday afternoon in Burbank, authorities said.

On Monday law enforcement sources told TMZ that Plitt was attempting to outrun an oncoming train when the accident happened. Witnesses said the train's horn was blaring when this photo (purportedly his last) was taken:

His girlfriend Christina Stejskal told the LA Times he was "just trying to get the best shot."

On Monday Metrolink officials told the LA Times that Plitt and his film crew did not have permission to be on the commuter railroad's right-of-way.

"He had no permit to be there," said Jeff Lustgarten, a Metrolink spokesman.

"We have a whole process for people to go through if they want to be on our right-of-way, especially for film crews."

Warren Coulter, who had been friends for 15 years with 37-year-old George Gregory Plitt Jr., who went by "Greg" was stunned.

"It was just a freaky moment where something got out of control," he said.

Plitt was a West Point graduate and Army Ranger who had jumped out of planes more than 1,000 times in his life and had a taste for extreme adrenaline rushes said his friend.

"No question of it, it was just a mistake," Coulter said about Plitt's trip and fall right before the train hit him.

Investigators have ruled out a suicide, and were trying to determine who directed the men to film without a permit in a restricted area of the tracks Saturday afternoon.

Plitt, a native of Baltimore who settled in Los Angeles more than 10 years ago, appeared on more than 200 magazine covers, Bravo's reality television shows Work Out and Friends To Lovers and NBC's daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, according to his personal website.

A motivational video on the website shows Plitt working out on the tracks as a Metrolink train passes by.